Don Nolan-Proxmire
Headquarters, Washington, DC June 16, 1998
(Phone: 202/358-1983)
John Bluck
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
(Phone: 650/604-5026)
RELEASE: 98-104
NASA LIGHTWEIGHT 'ICE ZAPPER' TO BE USED ON NEW
AIRCRAFT
An innovative NASA ice removal system will be included
with the first new general aviation aircraft to be introduced
in the United States in 15 years. The lightweight, patented
device will zap dangerous ice from wings and other aircraft
parts during flight.
Lancair Inc., Bend, OR, will test the ice removal system
with its Lancair IV aircraft and make the system available
later this summer with the new Columbia 300, a four-seat,
general aviation airplane. Even in warm climates, aircraft
icing can be a problem at higher altitudes where temperatures
are cold.
In 1995, NASA licensed the ice zapper, officially known
as the Electro-Expulsive Separation System, to Ice Management
Systems, Inc., Temecula, CA, for development and marketing.
Ice Management recently agreed to develop the system for
Lancair aircraft. The ice zapper could help NASA meet its
goal of greatly improving commercial aircraft safety.
"The ice zapper uses one-thousandth the power and is
one-tenth the weight of electro-thermal ice removal systems
used today," said inventor Leonard Haslim of NASA's Ames
Research Center, Moffett Field, CA. "The system pulverizes
ice into small particles and removes layers of ice as thin as
frost or as thick as an inch of glaze."
Haslim, a Naval jet fighter pilot during the Korean
conflict, continues to be concerned with flying safety. He
holds numerous patents, and he won NASA's inventor of the
year award in 1988 for the Electro-Expulsive Separation
System, which he also calls the "ice zapper."
"The Lancair aircraft, which cruises above 18,000 feet
at 345 mph, is the perfect first candidate for this unique,
new de-icing system, and this program complements our goal of
enhancing safety and increasing the utility of our aircraft,"
said Lancair president Lance Neibauer.
"I think that once it is working on a small aircraft,
engineers will realize the system will work well with larger
airplanes too," Haslim said.
There are other methods to combat airframe icing,
including thermal de-icing and pneumatic boots. "Thermal de-
icers that melt ice use a lot of energy," Haslim said.
"Also, melted ice can re-freeze elsewhere on the aircraft, or
larger loose ice shards can fly into the aircraft to cause
damage."
Pneumatic boots inflate slowly and need as much as a
quarter inch of ice to accumulate before they start to work.
They also dislodge bigger ice pieces that can damage aircraft
engines, according to Haslim. "In one winter alone, 26 F/A-
18 engines were damaged by ice chunks hitting engine fan
blades," he said.
"The system uses a powerful electronic photoflash-like
power supply combined with a thin copper ribbon that looks
like a belt flattened on itself and embedded in a rubbery
plastic," he said. "The looped, flattened copper ribbons are
bonded to wings, engine inlets and other airplane parts where
ice can form."
In less than a millisecond, the system sends bursts of
high-current electricity through the two parallel layers of
copper ribbon. The resultant magnetic fields suddenly repel
each other. The upper ribbon jumps less than twenty-
thousandth of an inch causing a high acceleration. The
motion breaks the ice bond, shatters the ice into table-salt-
size particles and expels them from the airplane's surface.
The system can run continually during flight, pulsing once or
twice a minute, to keep airplane surfaces ice free. The
system's overlapping copper ribbon prevents electrical
interference.
The task of converting the Electro-Expulsive Separation
System patent into a commercial product has taken nearly four
years and almost $1,000,000, according to Richard Olson,
president and chief operating officer of Ice Management.
NASA neither verifies product claims nor endorses
commercial offerings. To learn more about NASA innovations,
commercialization efforts and the agency's technology
transfer programs, interested parties can call 1-800-678-6882
or access the NASA Commercial Technology Network web page at
URL: http://nctn.hq.nasa.gov/
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